Tag: U.S. House

‘Shut up!’: House erupts after GOP congressman flips out on Democrats during health care hearing

The U.S. House of Representatives is a centuries-old institution with some very specific written and unwritten rules and codes of behavior. These are designed to ensure not only appropriate respect for all Members – and their constituents – regardless of age, or gender, or party, but for the institution, the Constitution, and for the rule of law itself.

House Republicans are increasingly ignoring these rules of decorum, and it seems clear they are doing so intentionally to show their utter disrespect while attempting to appear as if they are not part of the Washington “establishment.”

One of the unwritten rules is that male Members of Congress must be properly attired in a suit – including a jacket and tie. (And, naturally, pants and shoes.)

While it does not seem to be written anywhere, House and party leadership – and the Sergeant at Arms have been known to enforce it, at times vigorously, in years past.

View the complete March 29 article by David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

House votes to condemn Trump’s transgender military ban

The House passed a resolution formally condemning the Trump administration’s transgender military ban in a 238-185 vote on Thursday.

Five Republicans joined every Democrat in backing the measure, which was spearheaded by Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), who serves as the chair of the Equality Caucus’s Transgender Equality Task Force.

The resolution’s passage comes shortly after the administration announced that the requirement for members of the military to serve as the gender they were assigned at birth would be implemented next month, effectively undoing the Obama administration’s policy from June 2016.

View the complete Juliegrace Brufke and Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

House Democrats to Unveil Plan to Expand Health Coverage

WASHINGTON — Democrats won control of the House in large part on the strength of their argument that Congress needs to protect people with pre-existing medical conditions and to lower the cost of health care.

On Tuesday, Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will put aside, at least for now, the liberal quest for a government-run “Medicare for all” single-payer system and unveil a more incremental approach toward fulfilling those campaign promises. Building on the Affordable Care Act, they would offer more generous subsidies for the purchase of private health insurance offered through the health law’s insurance exchanges while financing new efforts to increase enrollment.

They would also reverse actions by the Trump administration that allow insurance companies to circumvent protections in the Affordable Care Act for people with pre-existing conditions. Insurers could no longer sell short-term health plans with skimpy benefits or higher premiums for people with chronic illnesses.

View the complete March 25 article by Robert Pear on The New York Times website here.

Kushner to cooperate with Judiciary document requests

White House adviser Jared Kushner has indicated through his counsel that he will provide documents to the House Judiciary Committee as part of the panel’s sprawling inquiry into the Trump administration, campaign and businesses through his attorney, a committee source tells The Hill.

Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell has indicated to the panel that he and his client will provide documents as part of the panel’s first wave of documents requests, the source says. It’s unclear how extensive the documents provided by Kushner will be.

Lowell and his spokesman did not respond to multiple requests for comment about such plans.

View the complete March 22 article by Olivia beavers on The Hill website here.

White House rejects Dem request for documents on Trump-Putin communications

The White House is rejecting a sweeping request from House Democrats for documents and interviews related to President Trump’s communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a letter obtained by The Hill, White House counsel Pat Cipollone asserts that the president’s diplomatic communications are confidential and protected by executive privilege and describes the requests as beyond Congress’s legitimate realm of inquiry.

Cipollone also argues that such a disclosure could have a detrimental impact on the ability of Trump or future presidents to conduct foreign relations.

View the complete March 21 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Elijah Cummings: The White House hasn’t turned over a single piece of paper to my committee

In November, the American people voted overwhelmingly to put Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives to start serving as a truly independent check and balance on the executive branch. Since then, President Trump and his allies have complained of “Presidential Harassment,” decrying Democrats for having the audacity to request documents and witnesses to fulfill our constitutional responsibilities.

The problem is that the White House is engaged in an unprecedented level of stonewalling, delay and obstruction.

I serve as chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, the primary investigative body in the House of Representatives. I have sent 12 letters to the White House on a half-dozen topics — some routine and some relating to our core national security interests. In response, the White House has refused to hand over any documents or produce any witnesses for interviews.

View the complete March 19 commentary by Elijah E. Cummings on The Washington Post website here.

Devin Nunes just filed an absurdly large lawsuit against Twitter because conservatives feel attacked

 

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U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes is suing Twitter and selected users for $250 million, alleging something he calls “anti-conservative bias,” “shadow bans,” and “smears.”

The Republican Congressman from California is claiming Twitter and “a handful of its users,” according to Fox News, have been “‘shadow-banning conservatives’ including himself to influence the 2018 elections, explicitly and systematically censoring opposing viewpoints and ‘ignoring’ lawful complaints of repeated abusive behavior.

“Shadow-banning” is when a social media platform narrows the scope of someone’s reach or bans them but allows them to operate normally, but does not allow anyone else to see their posts. It’s often done on some platforms to discourage banned users from opening new accounts, and is not illegal.

View the complete March 18 article by David Badash with The New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

Rep. Nadler: White House can’t claim executive privilege on Mueller report

Judiciary Committee chairman says administration waived that privilege ‘long ago’

The top House Democrat in the impending fight between the executive branch and Congress over the release of special counsel Robert S. Mueller’s report to the public indicated Tuesday that he will strongly oppose White House lawyers’ efforts to redact some information.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler claimed Tuesday that the Trump administration waived any claims of executive privilege over Mueller’s eventual findings “long ago” when it agreed to cooperate with the probe. Continue reading “Rep. Nadler: White House can’t claim executive privilege on Mueller report”

Trump tried to make the GOP border emergency fight about him. He lost anyway.

President Trump tried to marshal his most potent weapon — himself — to stave off what eventually became an embarrassing rejection from his own party over his declared national emergency on the border.

In numerous calls with Republican senators in recent days, the president spoke of the battle almost exclusively in personal terms — telling them they would be voting against him while brushing aside constitutional concerns over his attempt to reroute billions of federal dollars for a border wall. He argued that a vote against the emergency would be seen by GOP supporters as being against border security and the wall and would hurt their own political fortunes, according to a person with direct knowledge of some of the calls.

The president, along with his aides, continued to hammer that message leading up to Thursday’s Senate vote on the issue. Trump tweeted the day before that Republican senators were “overthinking” it, stressing that it was only about supporting border security. And White House aides made it clear to undecided Republicans that Trump was noticing those who chose to oppose him — particularly if they were up for reelection in 2020.

View the complete March 14 article by Seung Min Kim and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

House votes for Mueller report to be made public

The House passed a resolution Thursday calling on Justice Department (DOJ) officials to release special counsel Robert Mueller’s highly anticipated report about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Lawmakers unanimously passed the nonbinding resolution in a 420-0 vote.

Four Republicans — Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), and Justin Amash (Mich.) — voted present.

View the complete March 14 article by Juliegrace Brufke and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.